Fender air box feed

[Trigganometry]

After reading this thread I’m curious about your thoughts now that some time has passed since doing this mod. I put a Velossatech scoop on my rig. It does produce positive pressure at the intake and your additional foam barrier does contribute to better directed flow as will as boosting positive pressure. Now this pressure boost is relative to speed as well. By cutting a second inlet are you not redirecting your air flow from its intended path. Granted engine will take all it wants but you’re not at peak pressure using this approach unless you snorkel supply simultaneously.

Sponsored

 

[importfighter01]

After reading this thread I’m curious about your thoughts now that some time has passed since doing this mod. I put a Velossatech scoop on my rig. It does produce positive pressure at the intake and your additional foam barrier does contribute to better directed flow as will as boosting positive pressure. Now this pressure boost is relative to speed as well. By cutting a second inlet are you not redirecting your air flow from its intended path. Granted engine will take all it wants but you’re not at peak pressure using this approach unless you snorkel supply simultaneously.

You are correct that any ram air effect is negated by the fender feed. However everything I have read ram air says that it’s effects only take place above 70mph and is dependant On other factors such as intake tract and airbox geometry. In this case the effect of ram air is negligible and the benefit of a second feed is far greater. And when the throttle is mashed any unintended flow is a non issue as all airflow in that condition is pulled into the turbo from both the snorkel inlet and the fender feed. All the truck needs is a large volume of cold static air...with the hood closed. See my latest post here.

https://www.ranger5g.com/forum/thre...2612-k-n-performance-air-intake-system.12240/

K&N has proven with their dyno charts from Airaid and their own branded intake (8hp vs 14hp) that an air source other than the scoop inlet will make more power, as its newly discovered that their airbox has an open element foam top on it to draw air from too. Again issue there is it will be sucking in hot air with the hood closed, making it a hot air intake.

 

[onobeka]

The effect of RAM intake is dynamic pressure, which at 200mph is about 0.4psi. At lower speeds it's negligible. The most important aspect is that the engine is supplied with cold air, ram or no ram. At WOT the airbox is emptied in milliseconds given the turbo as well.

So, I believe what @importfighter01 did is OK, even if some of the rammed air would seem to be evacuated in the fender. I do not believe that's the case at least at the speeds these trucks travels at.

 

[RangerFitz]

You are correct that any ram air effect is negated by the fender feed. However everything I have read ram air says that it’s effects only take place above 70mph and is dependant On other factors such as intake tract and airbox geometry. In this case the effect of ram air is negligible and the benefit of a second feed is far greater. And when the throttle is mashed any unintended flow is a non issue as all airflow in that condition is pulled into the turbo from both the snorkel inlet and the fender feed. All the truck needs is a large volume of cold static air...with the hood closed. See my latest post here.

https://www.ranger5g.com/forum/thre...2612-k-n-performance-air-intake-system.12240/

K&N has proven with their dyno charts from Airaid and their own branded intake (8hp vs 14hp) that an air source other than the scoop inlet will make more power, as its newly discovered that their airbox has an open element foam top on it to draw air from too. Again issue there is it will be sucking in hot air with the hood closed, making it a hot air intake.

I thought it was suprising and interesting that the K&N intake used a foam top, it makes it more like an open intake. When I used to be into Audi's it was evident that open filter intakes would always dyno higher than a closed intake. But on the track and dragstrip the closed style intake would perform better and became even more apparent after multiple runs(climbing iats). I was also suprised reading through your logic earlier in the thread that the AFE rapid intake didn't dyno better as it is an open intake.

 

[importfighter01]

I thought it was suprising and interesting that the K&N intake used a foam top, it makes it more like an open intake. When I used to be into Audi's it was evident that open filter intakes would always dyno higher than a closed intake. But on the track and dragstrip the closed style intake would perform better and became even more apparent after multiple runs(climbing iats). I was also suprised reading through your logic earlier in the thread that the AFE rapid intake didn't dyno better as it is an open intake.

https://afepower.com/afe-power-52-10001r-rapid-induction-cold-air-intake-system-w-pro-5r-filter

If referring to this intake, it is sealed off. Just has plexiglass window like the Roush intake does.

 

[RangerFitz]

https://afepower.com/afe-power-52-10001r-rapid-induction-cold-air-intake-system-w-pro-5r-filter

If referring to this intake, it is sealed off. Just has plexiglass window like the Roush intake does.

I thought that too when I first saw it but no it's open. A guy on the fb page installed one. They recently started selling an optional plastic lid though. Maybe they didn't want to report results better than their quantum intake.

 

[Trigganometry]

Fluid dynamics and air flow are not all that much different. Under pressure in varying degrees it will preform accordingly in a single path. By introducing another flow at some point mixing turbulence works in a negative manner. This impedes a smooth flow in a linear path.

 

[importfighter01]

I thought that too when I first saw it but no it's open. A guy on the fb page installed one. They recently started selling an optional plastic lid though. Maybe they didn't want to report results better than their quantum intake.

Thanks for sharing. Could be they didn’t want to show more power on a competing product. It’s interesting that the truck for the quantum dyno was bone stock and with this rapid induction dyno the truck had a catback exhaust and intercooler pipes. So not an apples to apples on their test truck but who knows. Wonder if that foam seal presses against the hood liner or not. Why else would it be there I wonder?

 

[importfighter01]

Fluid dynamics and air flow are not all that much different. Under pressure in varying degrees it will preform accordingly in a single path. By introducing another flow at some point mixing turbulence works in a negative manner. This impedes a smooth flow in a linear path.

Agreed, and I considered this as well. 2 considerations overcame my turbulence fears. First is that the location of both the snorkel feed and the fender feed are pre-air filter, meaning that the airflow will get “straightened out” and made uniform when passing through the stock paper filter I use. Second is the location of the airbox outlet, in the lid of the box. It is not positioned to allow linear flow from factory snorkel inlet to airbox outlet, in fact Ford positioned them 90 deg from one another, as un-linear as possible. However the fender feed Is almost perfectly perpendicular to the airbox outlet, creating a more linear flow path vs the factory snorkel air box inlet. My hypothesis is that the engine would be pulling first from the fender feed as its perpendicular orientation makes airflow from there the path of lesser resistance and then snorkel inlet would only come into play when the fender feed is maxed out and additional airflow is needed. The turbo can draw as much air volume as needed from both inlets combined as the capacity is always available. That was my goal, to ensure the turbo had as much availability as possible to suck in a larger volume of cold air on demand.

Also, the fender feed has a 6in velocity stack on it to improve smooth flow under suction into the air box, and the airbox outlet has a built in velocity stack too to straighten out airflow regardless of which inlet the airflow came from. I have come to realize that smoother is always more efficient and have gained an appreciation for then velocity stack in air flow applications.

 

[onobeka]

The 4stroke 4cyl engine consumes air at an equivalent of the engine capacity multiplied by RPM divided by two. Let’s take 3000 rpm, the 2.3l engine would use 3450l of air per minute from a probably 15l airbox. Now add to the equation the turbo which spins at above 100k rpm at wot. So, the air will be sucked like crazy as long as there is no restriction. As long as the filter can get the needed air volume, the airbox design is pretty much irrelevant. That’s why on a dyno, an open airbox or no airbox will produce the maximum performance BONNET OPEN!!! Now close the bonnet and air density becomes crucial. Air scoops are not designed to create pressure in the airbox, but to allow for denser cold air. That’s why the scoop size is also irrelevant discussing scoops smaller that the car or a brick wall . Air density is proportional to speed, not size of the opening. It’s the Bernoulli effect, less surface but more speed.

So, the biggest improvement one could make to the tiny airbox is to assure access to cold air which is denser and if possible to have an outside front facing open scoop to benefit from the even denser air generated by air pressure. Do not think that that pressure will even influence the faster filling of the cylinder, as it is marginal.

Dragsters have open carburetors far from the engine and front facing, at maximum speed that can produce an extra 100hp but the engine is another animal. Also, you’ve probably seen F1 cars with an open scoop or street race cars with a headlight removed.

The scoops on the rangers are a cold air feed but nothing close to RAM.

 

[ROOK]

Importfighter01, what a great read about your efforts! Truly enjoyed the post and appreciate the time you spent sharing with the forum. Almost sounded like a “long term paper “ and you needed an A to pass the grade... thanks to the others also making this very informative for all us!!

 

[importfighter01]

Great video by Mishimoto demonstrating the same process I used to create my fender feed. In the first 15 sec you can see a demo of them drilling the inner fender wall and factory air box with a 3” hole saw. Not too hard, just measure thrice to be confident in your cuts. Mishimoto will have a nice template to make it easy with their snorkel kit no doubt ?

 

[Art S]

Hi 5gers! About 2 mos ago I decided to setup a second air feed for the factory airbox. I have my reasons for doing so, but I have no dyno numbers (data) regarding this mod so no reason to extrapolate as I know I will be challenged on “Your reasons and research suck, etc”. Thus this thread is simply to show the final product and what’s possible vs debate the mod.

All that being said I will provide my qualitative review that I noticed an immediate difference in throttle response and accompanying spool as well as top end pull at WOT. Again not making claims, just sharing my observations. Onto pics and descriptions...

I used this velocity stack on the inside of the fender:

https://www.summitracing.com/parts/...qz6i0bxkV6_tSr76S1XLz_Y6fJaCgHIxoCzdcQAvD_BwE

Installing it was accomplished by partially detaching the fender liner after drilling a 3in hole in the sheet metal separating the engine bay from the fender airspace using this:

https://www.homedepot.com/p/Milwauk...5MhSKJwG1mKhgpmsOSxoC_nIQAvD_BwE&gclsrc=aw.ds

With the airbox removed I held the velocity stack tight against the inner fender wall and from the engine bay side I slipped this silicone coupler onto the straight section of the velocity stack:

https://www.amazon.com/Straight-Sil...uPWNsaWNrUmVkaXJlY3QmZG9Ob3RMb2dDbGljaz10cnVl

With the velocity stack held in place flush with the fender wall via friction fit with the coupler slipped on, I secured the coupler onto the velocity stack with a 3in hose clamp. I then installed the bottom of the air box, slipping the other end of the coupler into a properly aligned 3in hole in the air box bottom. I then trimmed the coupler back to be more flush with the inner wall of the air box bottom.

In order to ensure the fender feed does not ingest warm air from the engine bay, I sealed off all air gaps where the fender bolts to the body and covered many small holes with white duct tape (cause my truck is white).

As far as where this fender feed draws air from, it comes from 2 places. The first is where the front of the fender liner opens up into the front bumper area (cold air area) and the second is from the fender vent by the door (I have the Ford Performance mesh fender vents, so another cold air area).

All in all not a hard or expensive mod to double the amount of air feeding the factory air box, just measure and remeasure to make sure your holes will line up correctly. As seen in photos you can’t even see the fender feed unless looking for it.

Thanks for reading 5g friends!

Hi, can you show pictures on the other side of the fender on the outside, not where the filter box is so we can see what that side looks like. This seems to be a good idea, any updates on performance or any issues from the install? Thanks!

 

[importfighter01]

Hi, can you show pictures on the other side of the fender on the outside, not where the filter box is so we can see what that side looks like. This seems to be a good idea, any updates on performance or any issues from the install? Thanks!

I’ll try to pull the fender liner down this week to get some of the velocity stack. No issues, pulling hard like a champ.

 

[Zetterbeard]

Couple questions @importfighter01 :

1. Have you noticed a dirtier filter after adding the additional inlet?
2. How did you secure the velocity intake to the fender?

Sponsored